Woodworking Essentials: Bending & Shaping

Curve wood with confidence for fine furniture, home improvement or even boat building. Learn fundamental techniques for milling, laminating and steam-bending wood.

Skill Level

Advanced

What You Get

7 Streaming HD video lessons with anytime, anywhere access

Class materials

Hours of close-up instruction

Answers to student questions from instructor Bill Thomas

Closed captioning available (web only)

How it works

Once you purchase, find your class in your class library.

Watch on any device anytime.

Find downloadable class resources in the class viewer.

Class Overview

Learn to bend and shape wood as professional woodworker Bill Thomas guides you through a variety of methods. Start with how to mill and cut wood to shape, and get tips for creating joinery along the way. Then, discover how to bend wood with laminating techniques, and bring sophisticated curved creations off your form. Bill also will guide you step by step through creating a steam box of any size, and steam-bending curved pieces skillfully  even traditional shaker boxes! Plus, for each technique, Bill will teach you to create and use full-size patterns and custom jigs to achieve excellent results every time.

Lesson Breakdown

1. Intro to Bending & Shaping

19:30

Meet your instructor, Bill Thomas, and preview the three techniques you'll learn for bending and shaping wood: milling, laminating and steam bending. Then, learn how to transfer a sketch onto your wood using graph paper, a grid and French curves; great for creating legs with decorative curves and more!

Taught by

Bill Thomas

Instructor

Bill Thomas is a professional woodworker with more than 35 years of experience designing and building custom projects for a wide range of clients. For nearly two decades, Bill has been teaching in his shop, and at woodworking and boat building schools. Bill also uses writing and photography to share his knowledge, ideas and designs in various magazines and websites.